Mayweather vs. McGregor Scores $55 Million Live Gate

The Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor super fight achieved one of the biggest gates in combat sports history, but fell short of expectations.

The Nevada Athletic Commission informed 411mania that the August 26 bout notched a gross live gate of $55,414,865.79 from 13,094 paying fans. An additional 137 complimentary tickets were given out.

The live gate reached second place on the all-time list for combat sports. Mayweather’s 2015 bout with Manny Pacquiao holds the top spot with more than $72 million. The boxing great, who announced his retirement after defeating McGregor by TKO in the tenth round, also holds the third spot on the list ($20 million for Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez in 2013).

McGregor holds claim to the largest gate in mixed martial arts history, drawing $17.7 million at the live box office for his November 2016 title bout against Eddie Alvarez.

Although wildly successful, the Mayweather vs. McGregor live gate number is much lower than expected. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe told assembled media on August 10 that sales had already surpassed $60 million. Ticket prices for the bout, held in the 20,000 seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, had been scaled to break the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao record, which was set in a 17,000 seat arena.

On pay-per-view, the fight appears to have met its high expectations. Showtime revealed Friday that early returns indicated in the mid-to-high four million-buy range on North American pay-per-view, and it may best the all-time record of 4.6 million buys set by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.